What are you reading?

[FraserRonald]

The Three Musketeers were almost totally different genres altogether. The book was much more gritty, with intrigue and betrayal and loss and all that. The movie was more a humour-filled romp of a period piece. I have to say that Oliver Platt was really good as Porthos. Can't really compare the two, though.

I cannot suggest strongly enough that if you want to see a near perfect the Three Musketeers movie, you must see Richard Lester's. The Four Musketeers follows the second half of the novel, and its tone mirrors it--while the first half of the Three Musketeers is very "swashbuckling" and is pretty much D'Artagnan's story, the second half is darker as it's pretty much Athos' story.

[SixthDeclension]

I went out of my way to read things like The Art of War, Paradise Lost, and The Aeneid. I liked em.

What, did you read it before LatinIV?

Oops. Meant the Iliad. Go me.

[Stratovarius]

Have read the Aeneid in English as well as in Latin, although the latter was a struggle. I find the epic poem style a bit flowery, partly because it uses epithets to fit the metre.

Currently on Makers of England, a history of the creation of England.

[BobismyRhino]

I'm 70+ pages into book 3 of Belgariad...

[TheWordSlinger]

Have read the Aeneid in English as well as in Latin, although the latter was a struggle. I find the epic poem style a bit flowery, partly because it uses epithets to fit the metre.

I think that's partially the point. That was one of my favorite aspects of the epics. I wasn't a fan of the ten different proper noun names for everything. Speaking of epic poems, The Inferno was an interesting and enjoyable read. I haven't gotten around to reading the rest of the Divine Comedy, but I will some day...

[AfterCrescent]

So last week I started reading Guilty Pleasures (Book 1 of the Anita Blake series) because it was highly recommended to me.  It's a modern fantasy novel, and although it carries the "Vampire book" title, the series is good old fashioned dark fantasy. I'm already a quarter of the way through book 4 now...

[Irthos Levethix]

Dude, thats a pretty good series.  I got my girlfriend hooked on them, now she owns them all.  There's also a graphic novel of Guilty Pleasures (which she got me for our anniversary, actually). 

Something happened in Laurel Hamilton's life around 2000, though, because she started getting really into the erotica aspect of... everything.  You'll see.

[Smudgy]

Just started reading Beowulf for my AP English class. Certainly looks like it's going to be fun! 

[altpersona]

beowulf was like a deep well in bedrock... i couldnt dig it..

[Omen of Peace]

So when I was done re-reading the Douglas Adams series I picked up more books by Steven Brust (Athyra & Orca) and damn they get better along the way. The first 3 (Jhereg, Yendi, Teckla) got me thinking "nice, in an easy kind of way" but most of the following ones are damn cool ! Now I'm going to have to buy all of them...

I'm re-reading Pratchett in parallel - maybe I'll get on to more serious books at some point.

[Irthos Levethix]

I just picked up Imajica, by Clive Barker.  I've read the first half once before, but now I've got the complete book so I can actually finish the story.  Weaveworld is another good one by him, if anyone's read it.

[Arcane-surge]

I've got Weaveworld. It was a pretty good time.

[Shewolf]

Right now I'm reading Titus Groan, the first book in the Gormenghast trilogy...this is about the 2nd or 3rd time I've done so.
I got lucky, scouring used book stores for years to find the whole trilogy. I buy used books whenever I can avoid buying new, that and the fact that at the time, the trilogy was out of print...Which is of course, frustrating, because when I started reading the second book in the trilogy, the spine cracked in half, and now the book is back in print and I think I may bend my principles and buy the damn thing new.

But anyhow, it's an interesting read, which says a lot, as I normally cant stomach these epic, sprawling, plodding high fantasy novels. (Don't stone me to death in the streets here, but to this day I have not finished the Lord of the Rings trilogy)

[j0lt]

But anyhow, it's an interesting read, which says a lot, as I normally cant stomach these epic, sprawling, plodding high fantasy novels. (Don't stone me to death in the streets here, but to this day I have not finished the Lord of the Rings trilogy)

Are you kidding, it took me four tries to get through the bloody first book, and it took the announcement of the movies to give me the fortitude to read through that wasteland.

Here's a BRIEF synopsis of the first half of Fellowship:
[spoiler]Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin start walking.
And talking.
And walking.
And singing.
And walking.
And having dinner with the flippin' elves!
And walking...

You get my point. 
[/spoiler]

Then came the Peter Jackson films, which were SO much more enjoyable.  I think I would've cried if he hadn't cut out that infernally annoying Tom Bombadil!

As far as what I'm reading right now, I'm still looking for something.  I just read Stephen King's The Stand a while ago, so I may just continue on to the Dark Tower series.  Any suggestions?

[Vas]

If you want a very well written story, interesting in both plot and in the different way the magic system is tackled, check out the Mistborn trilogy, so far its up to the second book with the final one coming out october. Its by Brandon Sanderson. Very very well written, great twists, and the magic system is really original and thought out.
And the really cool thing is the first book could be a stand alone in its own right, even though the second book is also very well done for a middle of trilogy book.

I reccomend highly

[SixthDeclension]

Started Dante's Divine Comedy the other day.

[Ubernoob]

I think I would've cried if he hadn't cut out that infernally annoying Tom Bombadil!

The lack of Tom Bombadil was my only disappointment in the movies.

[jcm]

But anyhow, it's an interesting read, which says a lot, as I normally cant stomach these epic, sprawling, plodding high fantasy novels. (Don't stone me to death in the streets here, but to this day I have not finished the Lord of the Rings trilogy)

I think that's an age thing. Between the ages of 8 and 18 I read the entire trilogy at least 10 times and loved every minute of it. I start to read it now and discover a million other things I'd rather be doing. The last time I managed to finish them was to refresh my memory for the movies.

I think the Gormenghast books are a pretty good read though. The BBC mini-series version is really worth looking up too.

[Tshern]

Just bought my own copy of Jennifer Government. Need to refresh my memory a bit.

[Zeke]

I am reading Jennifer Government now